Developing Theory Through Qualitative Inquiry

"This text presents a comprehensive introduction to developing conventional, mainstream theories derived primarily from qualitative inquiry. It offers various definitions of theory, multiple examples of theories from different disciplines in the author's signature writing style, and includes end-of-chapter activities for exercising the skills necessary to develop an original theory. The book is written for intermediate and advanced courses in qualitative research methods, undergraduate and graduate social and educational theory, and classes that address theory development in their particular areas of study. Saldana extracts from the literature that a theory, most often, is a research-based statement with an accompanying explanatory narrative that contains and/or implies the following six properties; a theory 1. expresses a patterned relationship between two or more concepts; 2. predicts and manages action through propositional logic; 3. accounts for parameters of or variation in the empirical observations; 4. explains how and/or why something happens by stating its cause(s); 5. suggests generalizability and/or transferability to related social contexts; and 6. provides insights and guidance for improving social life. This book describes the properties and fundamentals of theory construction; offers concrete examples of social science theories; and includes activities to develop original theories"--